Part 26 (1/2)
[Sidenote: A Mercian King.]
[B] LONG BENTON. A dreadful calamity occurred at Heaton Colliery, in this neighbourhood, on the morning of May 3, 1815, when, by the sudden influx of water from an old mine, Mr. Miller, (the under-viewer, who left a wife and eight children), 22 workmen, 42 boys, and 37 horses, perished; and 25 widows, with about 80 children, were left to bemoan the sudden death of their husbands and fathers. Steam-engines were immediately employed, and every exertion was made for the recovery of the bodies; notwithstanding which, it was not till the 6th of January, in the following year, that the first body was found. It was that of an old man employed on the waggon-way: and a fact worthy of notice is, that the waste-water in which he had been immersed had destroyed the woollen clothes, and corroded the iron parts of a knife the deceased had in his pocket, yet his linen and the bone-haft of his knife remained entire.
Shortly after, Mr. Miller, and a few others, were discovered: they had met a similar fate, having been overtaken by the water about a hundred yards from the shaft to which they had been hastening to save themselves. But the lot of these eight persons may be considered fortunate, when compared with the unhappy beings left at work towards the rise of the mine, and as yet unconscious of their dreadful situation. About the 16th of February, the higher parts of the workings were explored; and now a scene truly horrible was presented to view: for here lay the corpses of 56 human beings, whom the water had never reached, being situated 35 fathoms above its level. They had collected together near the crane, and were found within a s.p.a.ce of 30 yards of each other; their positions and att.i.tudes were various; several appeared to have fallen forwards from off an inequality, or rather step, in the coal on which they had been sitting; others, from their hands being clasped together, seemed to have expired while addressing themselves to the protection of the Deity; two, who were recognized as brothers, had died in the act of taking a last farewell by grasping each other's hand: and one poor boy reposed in his father's arms. Two slight cabins had been hastily constructed by nailing up deal boards, and in one of these melancholy habitations three of the stoutest miners had breathed their last. A large lump of horse flesh, wrapped up in a jacket, nearly two pounds of candles, and three others, which had died out when half-burned, were found in this apartment, if it can be so called. One man, well known to have possessed a remarkably pacific disposition, had retired to a distance to end his days alone, and in quiet. Another had been placed to watch the rise or fall of the water; to ascertain which, sticks had been placed, and was found dead at his post. There were two horses in the part of the mine to which the people had retired; one had been slaughtered, its entrails taken out, and hind quarters cut up for use; the other was fastened to a stake, which it had almost gnawed to pieces, as well as a corfe or coal basket that had been left within its reach. That these ill-fated people perished for want of respirable air, and not from hunger and thirst, is certain; for most of the flesh cut from the horse, with a considerable quant.i.ty of horse-beans, were unconsumed, and a spring of good water issued into this part of the colliery; besides, the unburned remains of candles afford evidence of a still stronger nature; and by these data the coroner's jury was enabled to p.r.o.nounce a verdict accordingly. The overman had left the chalk-board, in which it is usual to take down an account of the work done, together with his pocket-book, in an empty corfe; on these some memorandum might have been expected to be noted: but no writing subsequent to the catastrophe appeared on either.--The bodies of those men which had lain in wet places were much decayed; but where the floor was dry, though their flesh had become much shrivelled, they were all easily recognised by their features being entire.
[Sidenote: Dreadful accident.]
[Sidenote: Fifty-six lives lost in a mine.]
[Sidenote: Cause of their death.]
Map
Names of Places.
County.
Number of Miles From
+--+-----------------+----------+------------+--------------+ 45
Bents-Green
W.R. York
Sheffield 3
Bakewell 13
16
Bentworth pa
Hants
Alton 5
Alresford 8
12
Benville ham
Dorset
Beaminster 4
Crewkherne 6
23
Benwell to
Northumb
Newcastle 2
Corbridge 14
6
Benwick chap
Cambridge
March 6
Chatteris 6
42
Beoley pa
Worcester
Bromsgrove 8
Redditch 3
38
Bepton pa
Suss.e.x
Midhurst 3
Petersield 9
14
Berdin pa
Ess.e.x
Stanstead 6
Saff. Walden 9
15
Berdwick ham
Gloucester
Bristol 8
Marshfield 4
14
Bere-Church pa
Ess.e.x
Colchester 2
Coggeshall 10
12
Bere ham
Dorset
Blandford 7
Shaftesbury 8
16
Bere-Lay ham
Hants
Newport 7
Niton 2
36
Bergholt, East pa
Suffolk
Hadleigh 6
Ipswich 8
14
Bergholt, West pa
Ess.e.x
Colchester 4
Witham 13
+--+-----------------+----------+------------+--------------+
Dist.
Map
Names of Places.
Number of Miles From
Lond.
Population.
+--+-----------------+-----------------------+-----+--------+ 45
Bents-Green
Castleton 12
163
16
Bentworth pa
Basingstoke 8
52
592
12
Benville ham
Yeovil 8
130
23
Benwell to
Hexham 18
276
1278
6
Benwick chap
Peterborough 6
81
526
42
Beoley pa
Birmingham 11
112
673
38
Bepton pa
Chichester 10
53
166
14
Berdin pa
Bis. Stortford 6
36
342
15
Berdwick ham
Sodbury 5
97
14
Bere-Church pa
Aberton 3
52
142
12
Bere ham
Sturminster 5
109
16
Bere-Lay ham
Shanklin 10
93
36
Bergholt, East pa
Manningtree 3
63
1360
14
Bergholt, West pa
Halstead 10
10
786
+--+-----------------+-----------------------+-----+--------+
Map
Names of Places.
County.
Number of Miles From